Northside girls hold off Blue Devils in second round

Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer

Thursday

Feb 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The Northside girls’ basketball team continues to find ways to win.

The Northside girls’ basketball team continues to find ways to win.

Scoring the game’s final five points, the second-seeded Monarchs fought off No. 10 seed and East Central Conference rival South Lenoir 48-41 on Wednesday night in the second round of the NCHSAA 2-A playoffs.

This marked the second straight playoff game for Northside (24-4) that came down to the wire. The Monarchs beat No. 15 Edenton Holmes 49-43 on Monday in the opening round.

“Look, it was another close game,” Northside first-year coach Chad Novelli said. “The fact of the matter is that they sucked it up.”

And eventually won.

Now the Monarchs will play host to No. 11 Graham (18-10) on Friday in the sectional final with the winner advancing to the East Regional semifinals in Fayetteville. Graham, which beat No. 6 East Duplin 56-30 on Monday, defeated No. 3 Whiteville 60-43 on Wednesday.

South Lenoir, which split its regular-season series with Northside, ended 18-7.

“When it gets tough and they start coming back, we have to stay together,” said Northside’s Journee Collins, who had 10 points and 8 rebounds. “That’s what we end up doing every time. It just brings us closer together. We talk it out and keep each other pumped up.”

Down 26-25 at halftime, the Monarchs outscored the Blue Devils 13-1 in the third quarter to take a 38-27 lead. A jump shot from Erin Bowerman with 4:33 left in the game gave Northside a 42-32 lead.

However, South Lenoir closed to within 43-41 with 1:15 left when the Heather West stole the ball and scored on a layup. Northside’s Kayla Hill made a free throw two seconds later and then followed with another free throw with 57 seconds left to make it 45-41.

After a Northside stop, Lizzie Perez made two free throws with 46 seconds left and then made another one with 12 seconds left for the final margin.

Hill finished with 9 points, Bowerman had 7 points and 6 rebounds for the Monarchs, who were led by Ashanti Curry’s 13 points.

Both Collins and Curry have been battling an illness this week.

“It’s the playoffs. So it’s either win or go home, and we didn’t want to go home,” Collins said. “We just had to push through it and work hard.”

The Monarchs certainly did work in the third quarter to take the lead.

Bowerman tied the game at 26-26 with a free throw 1:30 into the third quarter before Curry gave Northside the lead for good at 28-27 on a layup.

South Lenoir’s Marquia Suddeth made a free throw before the Monarchs scored the next 10 points of the quarter.

“It was a one-point game at half, but they came out in the third quarter and just played excellent,” Novelli said. “The only thing I had to do (at halftime) was just remind them what was on the line. I don’t even have to do that because I have seniors to do that for me. These girls, when something clicks, they take it to the next level.”

West ended with 16 points and Demeyia Adams added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Blue Devils.

“At halftime, he (Novelli) didn’t come in and yell at us,” Collins said. “He just told us that we had this and that if we didn’t want our season to be over, we better get after it.”